VYSHGOROD (Ukraine): The Qatar Team’s Jay Price pursued Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed Al-Hameli from the start of a thrilling Grand Prix of Ukraine, round four of this year’s UIM F1 H20 World Championship on the Kiev Sea in Ukraine, on Saturday.

But the 2008 World Champion could not find a way to overtake the Emirati and had to settle for second place in a race where team-mate Alex Carella started badly and slipped to seventh before climbing back to fifth position. The result means that Price takes a 10-point lead in the UIM F1 H20 World Championship over Carella into the summer break in the calendar.

Boat damage sustained in a spin on Friday meant that Qatar’s Khalid Saleh Al-Shamlan was forced to miss the second of the weekend’s F-4S races. Victory fell to Britain’s new series leader Matthew Palfreyman, as Al-Shamlan slipped to third in the points’ standings for the Eurofin Trophy.

“We are happy with the result for Jay,” admitted Khalid Bin Arhama Al-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani.

“It is more points on the board and has helped him to pull away from the others. Alex did not have the best of starts, but he recovered well to take fifth and stay in touch with Jay. We could not repair Khalid’s F-4S boat, so he will have to wait until China now for his next chance.”

The race

Price shadowed pole winner Al-Hameli through the opening lap and trailed the Emirati by 2.37s after two tours of the circuit. Carella slipped to seventh. The Qatar Team duo maintained second and seventh through six laps, but Price continued to keep the pressure on the leader and reduced his lead to two seconds heading into lap 10 of 37.

Price reduced the margin to just 1.92s after 14 laps as he and Al-Hameli began to pull away from third-placed Sami Selio. Carella could not improve on seventh after his bad start. As the race progressed, the leading seven boats held station heading into lap 20.

Al-Hameli was clearly on the ragged edge heading into lap 23 and Price reduced his lead to 1.14s.

Selio began to close in slightly on the leading duo and remained well clear of Cantando, Andersson, Al-Qamzi and seventh-placed Carella. Al-Hameli retained a 3.50s lead heading into the closing four laps and Price eased slightly to conserve second position over the last laps to put another valuable 15 championship points on the board. Carella finished the race in fifth after passing Thani Al-Qamzi and Andersson in the closing stages.

Price and Carella ran for 22 and 18 laps respectively in the morning’s free practice session and recorded the second and third fastest laps behind Team Abu Dhabi’s Ahmed Al-Hameli. The Emirati pipped Price by just a tenth of a second with his 49.12s lap.

F-4S

When Filip Roms was given a one-lap penalty at the end of Friday’s race for hitting a turn buoy, Sjoholm was duly awarded three extra championship points and Al-Shamlan found himself heading into day two trailing the Swede by a single point in the title race.

But the Qatari was unable to take part in the day’s activities because of the damage sustained to his boat in the accident on Friday. He had to sit on the sidelines, as Matthew Palfreyman claimed the fastest time in practice, Bimba Sjoholm took pole position and Palfreyman claimed victory in the race.

As an added bonus for spectators, there will be a special series of match races for the President’s Cup on Sunday, July 31st, starting at 10.00hrs (Doha time).